A city councilwoman charged yesterday that the Board of Education is thwarting attempts to create a charter school sponsored by a teachers-union official.

Schools Chancellor Harold Levy described the claim as “nonsense.”

Charter schools are publicly funded but can operate under private management and are exempt from most board rules.

Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz, who represents Manhattan’s East Side, said teachers and parents want to consider turning troubled JHS 217 in Jamaica, Queens, into a charter school that it would help run.

But the effort, Moskowitz said, has gone nowhere because of opposition from the Board of Ed.

Florian Lewenstein, a computer teacher and United Federation of Teachers chapter leader at the school, said, “We’re being stymied. There’s been resistance from the district office and the chancellor’s charter-school office.”

Lewenstein complained he couldn’t even get to step one: allowing parents to vote to consider a charter conversion.

Moskowitz said the board’s charter-school office is “currently under leadership that does not return phone calls or answer letters. Children cannot wait endlessly for decisions to be made by nonresponsive educational managers.”

Levy called Moskowitz’s accusations “ridiculous.”

The chancellor insisted there have been “repeated” meetings and conversations involving his charter office, District 28 officials and the staff at JHS 217. And top board officials met with Moskowitz last week on the matter, Levy added.

District 28 spokesman Ron Levine said District Superintendent Neil Kreinek will meet with JHS 217 representatives “in a few weeks.”

The chancellor noted he proposed that Edison Schools Inc. manage five of the city’s worst schools as charters. But parents overwhelmingly rejected the idea.